Under southern skies
Having recently turned a year old, South Australia's eProjects Panel is one example of a centralised approach designed to reduce the cost and complexity of working with government, while delivering greater value for money on government projects.
SA's CIO, Andrew Mills, said the eProjects Panel was designed to cover lower value contracts. It provides government departments and agencies with a list of more than 120 pre-approved members categorised according to the goods and services they are able to provide. However, it also offers a series of features directly out of the AIIA's procurement wish-list.
"There are three characteristics that distinguish the eProjects Panel from other similar South Australian Government panels," Mills said. "It allows vendors, in certain circumstances and consistent with Government policy, to commercialise intellectual property developed during the course of projects for government; it adopts a risk-based approach to determining the extent of required insurances and potential liabilities of vendors; and it incorporates vendor performance reviews that will reflect how well each vendor has met the expectations of a purchasing agency."
Applications to participate in the panel are open and its membership is regularly reviewed. Resellers can participate by agreeing to supply services using a standard contract and are vetted through the selection process to determine whether or not they have sufficient capability and capacity to provide services to government agencies.
Having been launched in April 2007 with 73 panellists, the panel now features 123 members who compete for government work in the state, with the bulk of transactions and tenders lodged through the eProjects Panel portal.
"The panel is still in its infancy and there's insufficient data to fully assess whether it's achieving its goals," Mills said. "However, there's significant agency enthusiasm and support due to the benefits and efficiencies being realised."
Westerly change
Like SA, WA uses a mixture of what it calls common use arrangements (CUAs) and direct calls for tender depending on the size of the individual contracts.
"We establish whole of government contracts through common use arrangements if there's something which is commonly purchased, so we can leverage efficiencies by consolidating the purchase," director of ICT sourcing for the Western Australian Department of Treasury and Finance, Trudy Grimshaw, said. "Both resellers and vendors appear on the contracts, so the government agency can select to go direct or to buy through a reseller."
According to Grimshaw, this approach secures a better price for government contracts, while providing government departments and agencies with access to better support through the channel partner arrangements.
"Our model allows for a degree of competition across the market, as well as the convenience of a distributed network," she said. "It's designed to secure the best value for money outcome, which isn't necessarily the best price."
The WA procurement office also supports individual agencies to draft tenders and contracts when purchasing outside the common use arrangements, many of which also focus on securing goods via the reseller network rather than direct from vendors.
"It's a balance, we encourage the agencies to build a relationship with the vendors, and at the same time we encourage them to make user of the reseller network so they continue to be competitive," Grimshaw said.
Back in 2002, WA also replaced its consortium contract arrangements held then by IT services giant, CSC, with the panel-based Spirit framework, enabling a plethora of smaller service providers to bid for government work. Still in operation, the approach was designed to stimulate the local IT industry by providing access to government contracts, while providing agencies with greater flexibility in terms of their ICT service procurement.
"Industry either loves it or hates it," Grimshaw said. "But it tends to work best for companies that are willing to go out and seek opportunities, when there are a number of suppliers competing for a single contract it is almost like an open market."
